2 LIBERTY AND A LIVING. 



mean pleasant work, with plenty of time for 

 books and talk. There is something wrong 

 about a system which condemns ninety-nine 

 hundredths of the race to an existence as bare 

 of intellectual activity and enjoyment as that 

 ^ a norse an d with the added anxiety concern- 

 ing the next month's rent. Is there no escape? 

 Throughout years of hard toil I suspected that 

 there might be such an escape. Now, having 

 escaped, I am sure of it. So long as I can get 

 a house and garden for three dollars a week, 

 so long as oatmeal is less than three cents a 

 pound, so long as the fish bite and the cabbages 

 grow, I shall keep out of the slavery of modern 

 city existence, I shall live in God's sunshine and 

 enjoy my children's prattle, my books and papers. 

 For a good many years I worked hard at 

 newspaper correspondence and miscellaneous 

 writing without doing more than keep my fam- 

 ily in the most modest way of life. I went to 

 my desk early and remained late. Year after 

 year I dreamed of the day when my bank ac- 

 count should be large enough to allow me at 

 least a few months for that out-door work and 

 sport I love so well ; yet the day of rest seemed 

 to grow more distant rather than nearer. Grad- 



